Still looking for a bit of info to the following LeMans 1962 participants :

Jean Kerguen ,F, Pierre Noblet ,F,Fernando Tavano,I, Mo Charles (Garage owner),GB , P.JSargent ;GB, and Ecurie Chiltern , GB..
Not a long biography wanted, but more were they business men , garage owners or rich people having "fun"?.

Ian Raby is one of the many drivers whose grave I am searching for. He ran the Empire Garage in Brighton and dealt in racing cars. Born on 22 September 1921 at Woolwich, SE London, he started racing in 1952 in the 500cc class at Brands Hatch. His car was nicknamed 'Puddle Jumper' because of it's low ground clearance, a name which appeared on every car he subsequently raced in. He finished 3rd in a Gilby-BRM in the 1963 Rome GP and drove a Brabham-BRM in later races. He was a qualified pilot with more than 120hrs to his credit. He crashed heavily in an F2 race in a Brabham BT14 at Zandvoort on 30 July 1967 and seriously injured, and was returned to recover at St.Thomas' Hospital, Lambeth Palace Road, London, but on 7 November he died from his injuries.

Born on the 22.September 1921 , Woolwich,SE London
Died on 7.November 1967

Ian Raby ran the Empire Garage in Brighton mainly buying and selling race cars.
Started racing in 1949(one source say 1952), being one of the founders of F3-500 racing. He build his own car , nicknamed "Puddle Jumper", because of its low ground clearence, a name which would follow all cars he raced. Racing in F3-500 with that car he changed to a Cooper in 1956 and got some succes. For the following 3 years it was mainly sports and formula libre racing for Raby , among them the LM1957 with Jack Brabham in a Cooper "bobtail". He then turned to FJ and ran the Envoy , later a Cooper and also went abroad under the name Empire Racing Team. His best result being a 2nd in Vienna.In Britain his best result was a heat win in one of the lesser FJ races.
He continued with FJ in 1962 , but for 1963 bought the ex Keith Greene Gilby BRM F1 car, setting up Ian Raby (Racing) Ltd.. A pure privateer still , he paid all by himself , with no sponsors, he even had 2 mechanics fulltime engaged for preparing the cars(he also ran a Lotus 27 F3 for US boy Bruce Eglington) , himself doing the paperwork etc. In 1963 he entered 10 F1 races (incl.5 foreign/2 GPs) and scored : 3,7,8,9,NC(12),R,R,R,NQ,NQ.
For 1964 he bought the ex Brabham BT3 doing 7 F1 races(incl.2foreign /2 GPs) with the following results : 8,15,R,R,A,A,NQ. For 1965 with the same car he did 5 F1 races (incl.2 foreign/2 GPs) for 8,9,11,12 & NQ. He also did enter the IGP , but the car was sold before that race.
Never considering himself a pro Ian Raby felt that privateers was left behind , as most starting money went to the "stars" and as many other privateers at that time , Raby felt there should be some more money to his type of entrant , as they sometimes did mix ,and allways did their own battles to make races attractive. This was not to be and as F1 changed for 1966 Ian Raby opted for F2. He bought the ex Hulme Brabham and took a 4th at the Eifell as well as an 11th and a retirement in 2 British F2 races.
For 1967 in a "new" ex Hulme BT14 he would be doing a full F2 season and reched 11 races(7 foreign) and took the following places :5,6,8,8,9,11,13,16,R,R,C! That crash was at Zandvoort on the 30.July where he was seriously injured and taking to Sct.Thomas Hospital,Lambeth Palace Road, London to recover ,but sadly died on November 7th..

Ian Raby had a son Ian jr. who after his death continued the racing team for some time. Ian jr. now lives in Spain , but appears to have some roots as he attended the FJ event at Mallory Park in May 2006.

The Raby racing cars were all red with white nose, except for the F1 cars.They were blue with a white stripe front to rear , the Brabham additional having thin white and red bands around the nose. All carried the nickname "Puddle Jumper" in white.

Not a bad summary, Bjørn, but I don't think he started racing nearly as early as you think. His name doesn't appear at all in the F1R book covering 1947-52 F3, and he certainly wasn't one of the founders of the class. In fact, if he raced before 1956 he didn't come to public attention until that year, when he raced his Cooper 500 Puddle Jumper. As well as racing small sportscars (Coopers, Elvas etc) over the next three years he continued in F3 until 1958, and had two F2 seasons in 1959 and 1960.

I didn't want to start a new thread to find the answer to a simple question (I hope).

I have been looking at the F Atlantic results for 1975/6 and Shellsport for 1976/77 and found two drivers listed on various websites.. Deryck Cook and Derek Cook.. both driving Chevron B27s. Are they one and the same driver, or two different drivers? If one, which is the correct spelling.
For the life of me I can't remember.. old age you know
Thanks
Rob

Hello Rob , in my records there was only one D. Cook and he was Derek. Racing in 1975 in both the John Player and Southern Organs Fatl. championships March75B and then Chevron B27 for George Cooper Ltd. and I believe 1 race for SDC Racing all with a Cook tuned engine.(his own?)

While searching "strange" on the Allan Connell thread I came across some infos on Pierre Noblet :
French textile tycoon from Roubaix. Bought 250 GT Ferraris from Francorchamps and raced them himself and also J.Guichet . Also was racing for the Ecurie in 1960-61-62 as they were managing his cars. Thereafter propably on his own.

Also I happen to have 4,5 pages on Ian Burgess and 4 pages on Noel Cunningham-Reid if anyone should be interested.

Perhaps I myself should have made a thread on every one I wish to know about , but I dont. So here I am again : I would like to pursue the Ian Raby infos and ask for any more , as well as pictures , I also understand he drove the Hume-Cooper in 1959? Any pictures? Any ideas of his way of transporting cars to the tracks? Please lets have some more!

Re Ian Raby - If you look in the adverts. in Autosport in the late 50s you will see racing cars for sale by Car Exchange Brighton. On 20 Sept 57 a statement appeared
" To all friends and clientele I E Raby has no further business connection with Car Exchange Ltd 18 Church Road Hove but will continue specilizing in racing and sports cars of all descriptions from 71 Arundel Road Peacehaven"
Going on to 29 Nov 57 (at random) we find
" I E Raby Buys sells exchanges 500s, 1100s, 1500s and unlimited sports and racing cars"
Meanwhile Car Exchange was still advertising Lotus and Coopers for sale.

For those unfamiliar with Sussex, Brighton and Hove are ajoining and Peacehaven is 10 miles or so east.

At some later time Raby bought Empire Garage, where I encounted Raby when I bought a car in 1966 .

Hey everybody. In April there was a thread on Dick Protheroes Ferrari. But he did IMO "wonders" with his E type(s) . I would like to know more about him. Any help? Or would it be better to reopen the Ferrari thread to make it the Protheroe thread?

Hi Bjorn
IIRC Dick started with Healeys, (100/4 then 100S) you are probably aware that he had a garage in Husbands Bosworth which I think was a Jaguar Agent. Hence the concentration on Jags later, presumeably he got some assistance from the works. Can anybody confirm that presumption.
John

Somewhere I should have something , but cannot find it ! Please help me with Temple Buell/Scuderia Buell , I know it was an US team doing sports car racing. What I am in particular interested in is who was it and who ran their F1 team in 58 , was it a kind of semi/works, or from where , how did they get to the tracks ????????????????????????????????????????????????????

I found a bit on Pierre Noblet : French textile tycoon from Roubaix. Bought Ferrari 250GT from Francorchamps and raced himself , but also with Jean GuichetAlso racing for the Ecurie in 1960-61-62 as they were also managing his car. Also got the GTO from Francorchamps , but appears to have gone alone iafter 62.
Corrections or supplements very welcome.

This is what I got on Sports Motors(Manchester) Limited. 250 ,Plymouth Grove , Manchester 13 :

Sources , MAP , TNF , me

Founded by Graveley and Bloor

One of their drivers was Bloors son Rodney.

Started up with Austin A35 , a feature of early saloon car racing were Rodneys duels with Harry Ratcliffe(later of British Vita) in his Morris Minor. Asked what it was like , driving the A35 , Rodney answered : like walking a tightrope on iceskates!

At : www.photohistoric.com , the first pix in "browse" , 1965 G.Hill, you see the frony part of Sports Motors Austin "noddy" transporter.At: the TNF thread "Formula two- the iconic proving ground is a pix of Birrells racer and part of their Coke sponsered transporter.

Originally posted by Bjørn Kjer At: the TNF thread "Formula two- the iconic proving ground is a pix of Birrells racer and part of their Coke sponsered transporter.

This one;

IIRC the team wasn't sponsored by Coca Cola per se, but by Coca Cola Bottlers. Quite why I remember this is beyond me, perhaps it was on a sticker or something, but I believe it to be the case. Maybe they were a subsidiary of the main manufacturer or similar.